The Freelance Monsters
by Acolyte of Truth
Summary: After failing his exam, naruto didn't learn Kage Bunshin. Instad, he learned a technique that turned him into a freak, a monster. but he doesn't need Konoha. He found people like him. Together, they will show that they are human, and maybe find love too.


Disclaimer: This is a preview chapter for this story. For more information, look at the poll in my profile, but basically you are voting on which story I start next. That being said, let's move on.

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Chapter 1: Becoming One

The sky was an inky black this particular night in the village of Konoha. Thick, black clouds obscured the shining stars, but it didn't matter much, as the moon wasn't out to begin with. In short, it was as dark as it could be this night. However, that didn't stop the commotion in the village.

Shinobi of all ranks chuunin and up were scurrying around, scouring the village top to bottom, looking for a young boy no older than twelve years of age. When taken out of context, many would be confused as to why the military of the most powerful nation in the world were looking for one small boy. After all, what had he done? What could he do?

You see, the boy himself was considered a little danger to himself or others, but there were a few unique situations that made the ones searching for him panic and worry a little. To understand the first reason, one would be required to travel back int time to the day the boy, Uzumaki Naruto was born.

On October tenth all those years ago, a great destructive force plagued the land. The Kyuubi no Kitsune, a beast of legend like the rest of the mythical bijuu, threatened to destroy everything that stood in its way, Konoha included. The hokage at the time, Namikaze Minato, father of Naruto, was celebrated for his skill, being regarded as one of the greatest shinobi of all time, knew of only one way to vanquish the beast.

That night, the Yondaime hokage gave his life to seal the beast within his newborn son. However, those who knew of this saw it as a great insult, as the beast had caused nearly everyone to lose a person close to them. As such, they often mistreated the boy, forcing the reinstated Sandaime to enact a law that forbade anyone from telling the truth of that night, an offense punishable by death.

However, there is something about that night that almost no one knows. Kyuubi was a being of such great chakra that it was impossible for a baby to contain it all. As such, only the yin chakra was sealed into the boy. What happened to the other half, no one knows.

The other reason why people were panicking so was due to what the boy had done. Uzumaki Naruto had stolen the villages forbidden scroll, an article filled with techniques sealed away for various reasons, either for the price one had to pay to cast the technique, any moral repercussions there might be, or because no one had a good idea of what id did exactly, and no one wanted to find out bad enough.

However, it wasn't all the boy's fault. You see, Naruto had been depressed after failing his final shinobi exam for the third time in a row. To him, it seemed as if he would never achieve his dream of becoming hokage. As such, he was increasingly susceptible to his smooth-talking teacher's plot.

The only reason he had stolen the scroll was because he was told that if he could steal the scroll and learn a technique from it by the time he was found, it was an automatic pass. The way Naruto saw it, he wasn't doing any harm. At the most he was graduating and getting a new jutsu to boot. How could he say no to something like that. Plus, he was bound to impress Iruka-sensei, right? They were friends, weren't they? Mizuki-sensei was just helping him.

So, as everybody searched the village, it only occurred to two individuals to search the woods. It would take a while, but they knew that they would find him. And they would, but only once it was too late, as the young boy was already far ahead of them. In fact, a little more than two miles outside the village, a blonde haired youth burst from the trees and into a nice, large clearing.

He was easy to see, despite the darkness that embraced everything around, as his blonde head seemed to glow. His deep blue eyes, like sapphires shimmering with an inner flame, sparkled with mischief and excitement. Three dark lines marred either cheek, resembling whiskers, and his smile together enhanced the boy's fox-like appearance. Also, he was wearing an orange jumpsuit, which helped him to be seen... well, anywhere, really, but here in particular.

Satisfied that this was as good a place as any he would find, the blonde plopped down against tree and took a giant scroll off of his back. He placed it in front of him and rubbed his hands together in eager participation. "Okay, let's see what this baby's got."

With that, he unraveled the scroll a good amount and scanned over some of the jutsus in the scroll.

"Naw, lame, useless, don't understand what that means, no, nope," as Naruto went through most of those techniques, he kept unraveling the scroll, hoping to find a technique he could learn fast and would be super badass. There was a sudden gust, causing the scroll to unravel more than Naruto wanted, but he paid no mind to that, as a new jutsu caught his eye. "What the...?"

the jutsu in question had no name, only a description. Allegedly, it was supposed to help one harvest the powers of nature, giving them the ability to sap an opponent of their energy, digest any material for sustenance, or appear anywhere in the world. Of course, it was instead written in such a complex language that the blonde didn't even begin to understand.

Of course, that just solidified Naruto's theory that the technique was majorly badass, so he skipped straight to the requirements. He found it a little strange that he needed to cover his hands with blood, but he did so, figuring that every cool jutsu had a small cost.

So, taking out a kunai, Naruto made a deep gash in his palm, wincing a bit at the pain. Reading the next step, the blonde's brow crinkle din confusion at seeing he was to cover his hands in dirt. So with his crimson hands, Naruto began to dig, irritating his wound, but he ignored that. Soon, his hands were covered brown in their entirety.

Luckily, the next step was for the handseals, though, again, Naruto was confused, as many of the seals he hadn't see before. So, he did them a few times first, slowly to make sure he got them down. Naruto then finished the jutsu.

Now, what Naruto didn't know, as it wasn't written, was that the jutsu required a highly volatile chakra source to work. What he also didn't know was that he was releasing such a chakra as stated thanks to the Kyuubi. He soon finished, and was confused when he found himself tingling. He couldn't ponder that though, as drowsiness came out of nowhere, and he was out before he knew it.

To add to things, casting the jutsu had sent out a small energy wave, allowing those two searching in the forest to pinpoint his exact location, causing them to rush to him. It wouldn't be long before they stumbled upon something they never expected.

/

Blearily, Naruto cracked one of his eyes open. He quickly closed them shut, though, as he was wracked with pain. To add to that, his head dully ached and his whole body was tingly for some reason. Sluggishly, Naruto moved to sit up, muttering, "What the hell?" as he wondered what had happened to him. Then, he realized that he had just woken up, and his eyes shot open in shock. "Wait, how did I fall asleep? what did that jutsu do? Shit! How long was I out? Not good! Not good! I-I gotta' find another jutsu, and fast!"

Stumbling, Naruto moved to pick up the scroll, looking for something that he could learn quickly. He was surprised to find himself tripping over his own feet, and falling flat on his face in the dirt. He moved and leaned himself back against a tree, and that was it. He was out of energy. How had this happened? What was going on?

He didn't have much time to ponder, as a new person soon entered the clearing. "Finally found you! Naruto, do you have any idea how..." the person talking suddenly cut themselves off, much to Naruto's confusion, as even though he couldn't see him, he recognized the voice.

_'Iruka?' _using all of his remaining strength, he raised his head enough to see a tanned man standing their, a stunned look on his face. He had a long scar running across the bridge of his nose and his hair done in a spiky ponytail. It was definitely Iruka.

All was silent for a moment, as both parties just stared at one another, unable to do anything. It wasn't long, or, at least, Naruto didn't think it was, before another presence entered the clearing. This person's only distinguishing features were his shoulder length silver hair, and the cruel smirk on his face. "Congrats kid, you pa-..." the man started, and then he noticed Iruka just standing there. He expected to be yelled at, asked why he was there, but instead he didn't seem to be noticed, prompting him to tilt his head in confusion. Then, his face resembled Iruka's, as his eyes moved across the field, and he saw what his colleague saw.

_'Mizuki?' _Naruto thought as he now saw the man staring at him too. _'Why are they both staring at me? What's wrong?'_ Still unable to move, Naruto was starting to panic. He knew something was wrong, and he could tell something bad was about to happen, but he didn't know what either of those things were.

Finally, one of the two gaping men spoke. "Mizuki," Iruka spoke, his tone hushed and conspiratorial, "I think that that's Naruto."

"Kami-sama," the silver-haired man spoke, shivering a little, "it's worse than we ever could have imagined. How did this happen? He should be harmless! This shouldn't have happened!"

"Mizuki! Get a hold of yourself!" Iruka shouted, trying to calm the man down. "We-we need to think about this! We can't just rush to conclusions! There needs to be another reason for it!"

"How can there be another reason?" by now, Mizuki was ragged, deranged. And still Naruto didn't understand what was going on. The more time that went by, the further from consciousness he was getting. "Think, Iruka! I know you liked the kid, but there's no hope now! Look at what the beast has done!"

and Iruka did, and despite how hard he tried, couldn't disagree with Mizuki Slowly, the scarred man pulled out a kunai. "Then there's only one thing we can do," he said in a low voice. Naruto, even though he had given up on following the two, knew what was about to happen.

_'Iruka. No.' _Evan in his mind, he was too tired to yell. _'Please, no. Why? What did I do? I thought we were friends.'_ A single tear ran down the boy's face. Then, something inside him just snapped, as he couldn't take the new developments. He didn't care how Iruka was acting, as his self-preservation instincts kicked in. _'Go. I need to escape. Get away.'_ And with that, Naruto once again slipped into blackness, leaving behind two increasingly shocked men.

/

it would be some time before Naruto woke up again. He knew that it to be a couple of hours at first, as the first thing that he noticed was that the sun was almost at its highest point in the sky. It was then that he noticed that he was just barely in a cave, and all of the previous events came back to him. How he had stolen the scroll, tried to learn a jutsu, and woke up finding himself about to be killed by one of the closest people in his life.

Naruto got pretty depressed after that, curling himself up against the cave walls and closing his eyes to stave off tears that were threatening to spill. His only thought was that they wanted him dead. All of them. And he had somehow gotten away. Away. He was gone from the place that had mistreated him his whole life. He never had to deal with that again. He was free.

That final thought brought about a change in Naruto. Everyone wanted him dead? Fuck them! He would live just to spite them. He didn't need anyone. After all, what had they done for him? He had lived his whole life on his own, so how was this any different? You know, besides not knowing where he was. Resolve steeled, Naruto pulled himself up and decided to find out where he was.

He slowly walked out of the cave and over to the edge of the cliff he was situated on, and immediately felt his eyes widen. Below him was something out of a dream; a peaceful little section of forest area, with clean treas, a few animals roaming about, and a nice, crystal pond near him. Naruto quickly rushed down to make sure it was all real, starting with the pond.

He ducked down to the water and splashed some on his face, shivering at how cold it was, the he took in a few big gulps. This wasn't a dream. His eyes opened, and then Naruto froze at what he saw. He was looking at the water, an in it, he saw a reflection. And it wasn't him. At least, he didn't want it to be him.

Gone were his blue eyes, replaced by deep purple ones instead. No longer was his hair blonde, instead being a dark green. His skin was now two tones, black and white on the right and left respectfully, cut straight down the middle, the black half appearing as if it had no mouth. To top it off, two plant-like extensions sprouted from his shoulders, sporting thorns on them.

"W-what?" Naruto managed to gasp out. Was this why Iruka had tried to kill him? He was a monster. What had that jutsu done? Naruto staggered back a little in shock, falling down. His panic increased as he heard a deep voice full of malice.

"**So, you finally notice?"**

"Wh-who's there?" Naruto mustered up all the courage he could, but it was had when a voice came out of nowhere right next to you and you justy found out you were a freak.

The voice seemed to ponder the question for a moment. **"I suppose technically I am you. We are one in the same now. But you knew my as the Kyuubi no Kitsune. We've shared the same body for a while now, but that jutsu you used has allowed me more control this time around. You've given me a second chance, and we are now one, so allow me to show you what's been under your nose the whole time."**

Naruto found himself unable to say anything, shocked by what was going on. He couldn't come up with any retort. Soon, his head began to tingle, then it just burst into pain, as Naruto soon passed out, a silent scream in his throat.

/

So that's that for now. Completely original idea right here. I have no doubt someone as thought of writing a fic with Naruto like Zetsu, but I have yet to see one. If you know where I can find one, I would like to read it. Anyway, vote for this story in my profile if you want it continued first. Vote for your top three. More previews are coming. If you noticed anything wrong, feel free to respond and I'll fix it later. All criticism and reviewers welcome, and I never turn anyone away, no matter what shit they talk. Just don't be a bitch. And if you liked this, read my other works. Or don't. Either way, Acolyte out.


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